Twelve Dancing Princesses Barbie Party - 3yr - Little Princess Cupcakes

Barbie  12 Dancing Princesses Party (3 years old) 

Invitation: About two weeks before the date, I sent an e-card picturing Genevieve and some dancing ballerina silhouettes in the background (images can be found online or scanned from the book or DVD cover). There was also a picture of my daughter in the corner and all the necessary details. Invitees were invited to dress, dance and celebrate as their favorite dancing princess. 

Decorations: We placed streamers of pink, green and blue in the corners of our main living room and accented the streamers with plush flowers found on sale at Toys R Us. We also placed black silhouettes of dancers around the walls. I found the silhouettes online and copied them onto black paper using a projector and chalk. A painted poster of Lacey (my daughter's favorite character) was placed on a central wall and acted as a dual use for a game later on.  Activities:   When the children entered, there were crayons and coloring pages of castles, ballerinas and Barbie available. There were also some extra dress-up clothes for children who wanted them.

Once all the children were there, I gathered everyone on the carpet and read them the story of Barbie in The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The kids had loads of fun pointing out their favorite princess and putting in their two cents worth on what nasty things Rowena did. After we read the book, I suggested some dancing as the Princesses loved to dance. My husband put on some music and everyone danced. To add to the fun, I led them in a bit of ballet with some very unskilled pirouettes, sways and arabesques. There was lots of giggling. After a few minutes of that I introduced them to the game Frozen Statues reminding them that Rowena hated dancing. When I turned my back, they could all dance but as soon as I turned around (and the music stopped), they had to freeze in whatever position they were so Rowena would not see them dancing. After playing Frozen Statues for a few rounds, I pointed out that the Princesses could not get to the magic garden until after the triplets received their birthday gifts, so we sat down to play pass-the-parcel. Every child unwrapped a layer at some point and each layer had a little book inside with a colored flower taped on the cover just like the triplets received on their birthday.

Each flower was a different color. While we played pass-the-parcel, a friend scattered cut-out flowers to match each child's flower in the garden. When we were done playing, I pointed out the flowers on each book and challenged the kids to go to the Magical garden and find all the flowers that matched the one on their book. They dashed off and eagerly collected the matching flowers they found the little piece of candy taped to the back of each flower added to the excitement. Once they were all collected, I whispered to the birthday girl to fall down like Lacey did in the garden. She eagerly re-enacted the scene and pretended to hurt her knee. I handed out two Band-Aids to each child. They were to take one Band-Aid and place it on any ouchie they had and the other Band-Aid we used to play Stick the Band-Aid on the Lacey poster

 After this last game, the kids rotated through three activities free play in the garden, jumping on a small inflatable castle that a friend loaned us, and a final station where the kids could decorate a pot with sticky gems and permanent markers and add a little baby plant to start their own magical garden. Once everyone had completed the three activities, we gathered around a picnic blanket for some snacks and cake.

Snacks: There were jeweled skewers (fruits and marshmallow), chips, veggies sticks and sandwiches cut out with flower cookie cutters. 

Cake: I baked 12 large cupcakes and turned them upside down on saucers. I then wrapped bare Kelly princess dolls in saran wrap and inserted a doll into each cupcake so the cupcake served as the dress. Using the book as a guide, I colored little batches of white icing to match each one of the twelve princesses. Using the icing and some little cake decorations, I decorated the skirt and made an icing bodice for each princess. I then used two shiny wrapped boxes and some cones to make a castle on top of which I spread out the twelve little princess cupcakes. All the kids oohed and ahhed and declared their favorite. When it actually came time to distribute the cupcakes, I asked the parents to pick one they thought their child would like, to try and prevent any arguments. This cake idea was adapted from the Barbie cake ideas seen online and was surprisingly simple to make and decorate!  

Favors: After the cake and a little bit of free time, the kids started to leave. With them, they got to take the potted plant they made, the little book, the bag of cut-out flowers and candy they found and the little Kelly doll complete with her original dress.  The overall party turned out to be a roaring success!

For a Thank You card, I developed a group picture of the girls that I had taken at the party, matted it on lavender cardstock and wrote a little message on the back thanking each child for sharing in the celebration and for their gift. The Birthday girl signed her name and sometimes it was even legible!